Photopolymeric printing plates are widely used in the printing industry where they have many advantages but suffer from the well recognized disadvantages of being relatively soft and susceptible to attack by many organic solvents. These disadvantages make conventional photopolymeric printing surfaces unsuited for many types of printing involving mechanical stress, surface wear, or solvents or abrasive materials in inks. This particularly includes intaglio or gravure printing that involves doctor blades wearing against the print surface, strong solvents in the inks, high speeds, and long runs. Gravure has remained beyond the capacity of photopolymers and has required more expensive metal surfaces.
I have discovered a photopolymerizable composition of matter that produces a harder, tougher, and more wear resistant photopolymer than previously available. The composition is useful in producing harder printing surfaces suitable for types of printing that photopolymers could not previously withstand, particularly intaglio or gravure printing.